Chapter 269

269 TWELVE MONTHS

It had been a year since Flo came to the manor and July had been so attached to the little girl ever since. She would take the girl wherever she went and even her own parents couldn’t do much about it, since they were very grateful for her kindness to be able to stay in this manor, especially when the female shifter was pregnant with her second child.

July always treated them well and she would give them extra food and clothes, so they would let Flo be with her.

In an instant, July was more like her mother than the little girl’s own mother.

However, what bothered Knox was when he found out July was trying to make Flo call her ‘mommy’.

“I don’t think it is appropriate, my love,” Knox said, as he sat down beside July, while she was talking to Flo, trying to make her call her ‘mommy’. “She has her own mother.”

July turned thirty seven this year and it only made her more and more anxious every time she thought about it. She would be very conscious about her appearance and even though she looked perfect in Knox’s eyes and his feelings for her didn’t change even a little bit since the first time he laid his eyes on her. But, July still didn’t believe that and Knox could see it clearly.

She was aging like any normal human and Knox thought it was beautiful, unfortunately, July didn’t think that way. She was very conscious every time she walked with Knox.

There was a time when Knox said, if he could, he would choose to get older with her, to be a normal human being, but their situation was not as simple as that and there was no way Knox would be able to become a human.

At that time, after hearing that, July just broke down in tears, but said nothing. She became a little bit reticent after that.

.....

“I just want to hear her say it,” July countered, as she looked at Flo sadly. She was the child that she wished she would have with Knox, yet he only rejected her idea time and again.

Knox pulled her closer and then kissed her forehead. “You know that you have a choice in this matter. We have talked about this.”

However, July became angry when she heard that. She knew what choice that Knox was talking about.

During one of her breakdowns, Knox suggested for her to find her own happiness, which meant getting together with someone else. July could get what she wanted if she was with someone else, but that was not the case. She didn’t want anyone, she just wanted Knox and she had made her stance crystal clear about it.

“We have talked about this,” July said rigidly, as she took Flo’s hand and then started to walk away from Knox.

As a woman, her time to have her own baby was limited. She only had a few more years and after that, the image of Anne would hunt her down.

How she died without getting what she deserved. How her life withered away with the word ‘waiting’. She kept waiting for what? For Chaos? For him to finally see her? And then after that what?

July wanted to get this feeling off of her chest. She wanted to feel nothing toward Knox. She didn’t want to feel this love. This feeling only made her suffer more than anything else. She even wanted to not see him again, but she couldn’t do that.

Even after understanding everything, that there was no way for them to work things out, she still wanted to be with him.

“Where will we go?” Flo asked July, she looked at Knox, who was standing in his place, staring at the two of them, but chose otherwise from following them. “Why is he not coming with us?”

July tried to smile at the little girl and spoke gently to her. “He is busy. We will go somewhere fun, okay?” She didn’t know where she would go, but anywhere would be better. She needed to be away from him for now.

“Why don’t we go to district six? I want to see Ciara.” Flo suggested.

District six was the place that was occupied by the witches, they stayed there for the past eight months after they made a deal with Knox to protect this manor and their whole territory around this Fokosa city.

“Sure, do you want to go there?” She had taken Flo to the coven a month ago and the little girl became friends with Ciara, one of the witches there.

“Yes.” Flo jumped happily.

“Okay, we will go there. I will ask Sebastian to prepare the car for us, okay?”

Flo gave July her toothy smile, as she jumped up and down. She looked so charming for a little girl her age and July couldn’t help but squeeze her chubby cheeks.

“I want to see fireworks. I want to see magic.”

“Sure, we will ask Ciara to show you some magic.”

July was smiling, she didn’t know why Knox sometimes would be so guarded around this little girl and look at her in a certain way that made July frown.

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“You need to eat. If you are good, I will talk to Commander Sol. And he will let us go for a walk in the garden, okay?” Vanesha talked to River in a gentle tone, as she gave her a plate of food.

River had been punished for a week now, for not following Sol’s command and causing casualties when she had one of her now rare outbursts.

It was two months ago when the higher ups of the Hound finally agreed to let River out of the facilities and to be trained to be one of their weapons. Their non- human being weapon.

However, to be able to do so, they needed to tame her.

Sol had let the scientists know the right dose for River to be put down, since he had tried it a year ago with the help of Vanesha. Sol had done his own experiments on River during this one year of time and only Vanesha knew about this.

Yet, apparently, being outside of her little world in her room inside the facility, proved to be a little bit overwhelming for River and she had an outburst when Sol ordered her to do something and she rejected him by burning down two guards.

And now, River went back to her tight security room and was being observed twenty four seven.

She would attack anyone who came near her, except for Vanesha, since she was the only person that River had known and talked to. Vanesha was the only person, in her mind, that would treat her nicely and tell her stories like her mommy did a very long long time ago.

“You need to eat something, okay?” Vanesha persuaded her. She was not there when River stepped out of the facility for the first time after so many years of being locked inside and became an object of their experiment.

Probably that was one of the reasons why she was feeling overwhelmed.

“Vanesha...” River spoke, her voice was so small, she looked down at her dirty hands.

“Yes?” Vanesha leaned over so she could hear her better.

“Why has my mommy not yet come to pick me up? Is it because I am not being a good child?” River still remembered very clearly the fight that she had with her mother the night of that accident, the night when she saw her mother for the last time. “I want my mommy...” she said softly. “I am hurt. Those people hurt me.” River stared at her own hands.

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A loud scream echoed throughout this infirmary, as a woman inside the room was trying to survive from the complications of giving birth to her twins.

Someone then came out of the infirmary room, while holding a baby in her arms. “Alpha... one of the babies didn’t make it.” The woman held a bundle, a dead baby wrapped in a blanket, in her arms.

Liam’s eyes hardened when he saw his offspring not breathing. This was Jasmine’s fault. It was her fault for not taking care of her pregnancy.

Hell. The woman even openly wanted to hurt herself, she wanted to harm her unborn children. This was one of the reasons why she was in early labor now.

Liam then took the baby in his arms and looked at the baby’s small face. It was a baby girl. Their first baby was a girl, but she died during the painful labor and now, Jasmine was trying to give birth to the baby’s twin.

“Make sure the other baby is fine,” Liam said grimly. “Do whatever it takes to make sure the baby makes it out alive.”

“Yes, Alpha.” The woman was visibly scared when she heard a direct order from the alpha.

And after that, the woman went into the room again and Liam could hear how Jasmine cursed the baby that she had just given birth to.

She didn’t want to have this baby, she hated her pregnancy, because it reminded her of all the degraded things that Liam had put her through.

During the pregnancy alone, she had attempted suicide multiple times, yet Liam would always be there to stop her right in time.

“Kill me! Kill me! Kill this baby!” Jasmine cried, she thrashed her body and screamed again. She lost her mind from all the things that she had gone through during this one year. “I don’t want to give birth to this monster!”

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